Lita Oblena Ansay
May 10 1916 – Feb 1 2009
Lita Ansay (left) and Aquilino Ansay (right) at Waikiki Beach 1994
DALLAS, Feb 1, 2009 / — Super Bowl XLIII was about to start when I received the phone call from my cousin Sonny Belleza from West Covina, California that my aunt Lita Oblena Ansay passed away 12:10 PM PST today.
My first reaction was shock, then, I asked for my other cousin Steve Ansay, my aunt Lita’s son. I could not say anything but cry. Steve understood that there was nothing I can really say. The sadness over his mother’s death passed through the phone line.
In between my sobbing, Steve said something which was so true and also so sad, “There are only two Oblenas left now.” And, then I knew that I was the second on the end of the line. My niece Marie Marguerite is also female and she is the end of the line.
I could never remember a time when Auntie Lita was never a part of my life. As long as I could remember, she has always been there. The only sister of my father, visiting her house at Rizal Street at ‘Ibaba’ in Cavinti was something we regularly did. Even when she moved all of her family to Manila so that she could send her children to college, we would always visit. And when my brother Totoy started college, he stayed with Auntie Lita for a year.
A product of her generation, Auntie Lita only finished Grade 7, because during the 1920s, girls were not sent to school because ‘they would just get married and raise children.” So, her dream to get higher education, she gave to all her six children who all finished college.
Auntie Lita never burned the bra nor was part of any organized women’s liberation movement but her actions made her a true revolutionary. Her zest for life and thirst for knowledge brought her to places that she had never dreamt she would be able to see, something she told me when she visited me in Hawaii in 1994.
When her late husband, Uncle Aquilino and she visited me here in Dallas, we went to see Mission Control at NASA in Houston. Both of them were so proud seeing the two Mission Controls in person – the current one being used and the old Mission Control during the moon landing in 1969.
“I cannot believe I am here in NASA. I never thought that I will ever see this.” my Aunt Lita said. “And that’s something you should remember. As long as you are alive, you will be able to accomplish things no matter how old you are.”
And somehow, those are her words that have stayed with me; now that she is gone, I would always treasure that advice.
Lita Oblena Ansay is survived by her six children – Steve, Nepthalie, Loida, Abraham, William and Eunice, daughters-in-laws, sons-in-law, grandchildren and great grandchildren, sister-in-law Lucila Oblena, niece Mari Oblena Davis and grand niece Marie Marguerite Oblena.
[MARI OBLENA DAVIS]
Our family would like to express our sincerest gratitude for
all of your sympathies and prayers. We know that “Nanay Lita” is in a better place now, joining her dear husband “Tatay Aquilino” in meeting our Heavenly Father. Nanay has lived a full and wonderful life; her memories will always be kept and cherished in our hearts. Once again, thank you and God bless.
We, the Ansay Clan, from the side of Lita’s husband, the late Aquilino Ansay, hereby express our deepest expression of symphaty to the children left behind as a result of Lita’s demise